Motorola gives Sandy Hook Promise $50K for school violence prevention

Nicole Hockley, managing director of the Sandy Hook Promise, started the gun violence prevention organization after her son Dylan died in the December 2012 shooting.

Photo: Tatiana Flowers / Hearst Connecticut Media

NEWTOWN - Sandy Hook Promise, the homegrown nonprofit that’s been in the national headlines for the last month, got a $50,000 boost from the communications giant Motorola.

Chicago-based Motorola Solutions’ grant to Sandy Hook Promise will help the nonprofit extend its training programs about stopping gun violence before it happens into more schools, according to a release.

“We are so grateful to Motorola for standing up for youth and investing in making schools safer,” said Nicole Hockley, the mother of a first-grader who was slain in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre and a co-founder of the Newtown-based nonprofit. “With their support, we will empower even more students to ‘Know the Signs’ to prevent school shootings and suicides.”

Some 7.5 million adults and students have been trained in the nonprofit’s signature programs, which teach the warning signs that a youth is about to commit harm, and ways to intervene.

An executive for the charitable arm of Motorola Solutions said Wednesday that Sandy Hook Promise’s work is promising.

“We believe in organizations that foster innovation and drive change, and we’re proud to be part of the positive impact they are making in the community,” said Monica Mueller, executive director of the Motorola Solutions Foundation, in a prepared statement. “We are very pleased to support the work of Sandy Hook Promise,”

Sandy Hook Promise has been making national news for the last month.

In mid-September, the nonprofit released a satirical PSA that juxtaposed a back-to-school commercial with the graphic images of a school shooting.

One week later, Sandy Hook Promise announced a $360,000 deal with the National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings to bring the nonprofit’s programs to 65,000 L.A.-area school kids.

And last week, the nonprofit announced a handful partnerships across the country, including one with the University of Michigan to establish a national research and training center for school safety.

The new center is being funding with a federal grant from the $100 million STOP School Violence Act, which Sandy Hook Promise helped to write.